How To: Mod Defcon

How To: Mod Defcon

Here is a 45 minute video how to mod this game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M_xByPafhM&t=1491s
[ LINK ]

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This is a basic tutorial on how to mod Defcon.  There is also a how to tutorial guide on how to make a map mod using the mod suite features to do the hard work of adding numbers that create the in-game lines for the borders and coastlines and the mod suite also is used for city locations, size and names.  The cities document that the mod suite creates can be changed easily with a word processor or Notepad once the city locations are set if you want to rename something either a country name or city name and even size.

See also this YouTube video for how to make your own map mod.
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M_xByPafhM

Making graphics mods is easy to do in Photoshop or I hear the free editing software called Gimp and just be sure to save it the right size and bit depth.  Generally, 128x125 pixels and 24 bit depth.  Saved as .bmp, and then you need to have the correct name for the game to use it.  Example, bomber.bmp, fighter.bmp.  That's it they don't need to be white outlines they can be a picture of yourself sized right, and named right.  See the introversion forum post about all the names of everything in this game.
LINK:  https://forums.introversion.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=3884

1.) Defcon has a mod loader built into the game.
2.) Select "Mods" at the bottom of the "Main Menu"
3.) If you have a "mod" folder with mods in it they will populate the list.



      

4.) With the Windows 10 and Windows 7 operating systems common to most people.  How to find and change the Defcon mods on your computer?
a.) Navigate to "This PC" on your computer.
b.) Select the "Windows (C:) Drive" or wherever, whatever hard drive you installed Defcon on and double click that.
c.) Select the "Program Files (x86)" folder and double click that.
d.) Select the "Defcon" folder and double click that.
e.) There should be a folder titled "mods" and within that are the mods each in a folder titled whatever you want.



5.) OK, so now you know how to access the main menu mod list and then find the mods folder location on your computer.  So back to #3, on the main menu mods list you have to select each mod you want run and then "Activate," and then "Apply" them.


If it is a simple graphics mod like planes you CAN activate-and apply and deactivate-and apply them while playing in-game.  If it is a map mod (text name colored in red in the mod list) you can NOT deactivate them while playing them.  You need to quit the match and go back to the main menu to turn off entire map mods.  What you are doing when you activate a mod is the game "applies the mod path."  Apply being the keyword, you can't un-apply a map while you are playing.

You can add plane mods, ships mods and other mods into a single folder and make turning them on or off as your favorite mods, themed mods easier.

NOTE: You must "Deactivate" mods before you "Activate" and "Apply" another one.  Meaning you could "select" 10 different plane mods from the list, but you can't Activate 10 plane mods.  Only 1 mod for each thing you are modding will work at a time.

6.) So activating, adding, changing and using mods is very easy and user friendly as long as you know the basics and it is easy to understand the basics.  Just remember you need to deactivate similar mods and it is easy to know this as the list populates the mods being used at the top and there is a image on the right side of what the mod is.


7.)  Whatever you play in-game as a mod the Defcon game will use default items for anything not intentionally changed, meaning default game content, imagery.  Meaning if you make a plane mod but have no blur image for the plane mod the game will use the default blur image.
Example 2:  If you only change the bomber plane the fighter plane will be default.  Unless you do the work to put various mods into a single folder, like the WOPR mod.
Example 3: If you only change the audio that plays when nukes are launched, all the other audio will be default.


8.) PROBLEMS:
a.) If the game won't launch there is a problem with the mod most likely a map mod.  Most likely the documents that end in ".dat" like cities.dat, coastlines.dat, and international.dat if you are playing a map mod.  You can open these with Notepad and check they are formatted correctly.  Styles could be the issue its also a text document.  Cities can't be in the water.  The travel_nodes image is a cause of many problems creating a map.  That's pretty much the list, the list doesn't go on and on, unless you made an obvious mistake naming something.
b.) Simply remove the mod (or the problem document) from the mods folder and the game should work fine again.  (Ctrl+Alt+Delete) will bring up the "Task Manager" to close the game if it's not responding.  Also if you can launch Defcon but a map won't work, deactivate it.  An active map that has a problem will mess up Defcon.  Meaning you try to play it but the game crashes and now you can't launch the game at all.  So you will need to remove the mod from the mod folder because it is still active.

9.) Styles:  When you use the games customize menu to change the color of the menu, text and ocean and borders, etc.. it is saved as a text document titled "Styles."  This is how you make water and lines and stuff various shades and intensities of yellow, grey, or green, or red, etc..


link for these coming soon, can be gotten at web-archive, search for that post.

10.) All the images in Defcon are saved as bitmaps.  So a plane mod will look like this, "Fighter.bmp"
a.) Everything in this game is a bitmap and only a few have a different bit depth.  Right click an image and go down to the bottom to "Properties" and then over to the "Details" tab so see what all the information of an image is.  This will be useful if you make your own map.  Windows 10 can be configured to show image details in a side panel of the folder once the image is clicked on.

11.) The mod suite is used to make borders, coastlines and place cities.  See that post if interested in making your own map.

12.) Audio mods.  I have little to no interest in audio mods so you will need to go to the introversion forum and dig up your own information.  I do know that they are a specific type of uncommon audio file and compressed so good luck with that.

13.) The fine details that can make or break your bomber plane mod.  When the bomber is in the airbase, the carrier and in the air you can see if it has a nuke in it or not.  If you make a mod that makes it difficult to see the nuke, than while playing you will have a difficult time seeing what bombers have nukes.


14.) This is a picture of a fantasy map I made and the work in progress of making the travel_nodes image.  The white lines connect each white dot and those white dots are the travel_nodes.  The default game uses 22.  The red and green dots make up the other image called the AI_Markers image, and the red dots are sub attack locations (they aren't subs surface anywhere I found) and the green dots are where the ai will place ships.  If there is only 1 green dot the ai will place every ship there so add more.  If the green dots are outside the grey territory placement area the ai will not place ships at all and no ships will move possibly.


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